Architectural Condolences

An Experience of Transcendence

Journal article (2021)

Authors

N.J. Amorim Mota Public Building and Housing Design
Research Group
Public Building and Housing Design
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Published Date

2021

Language

English

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Research Group

Public Building and Housing Design

Abstract

Some of the most outstanding architectural monuments were designed for, or inspired by funerary rituals and practices. The pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India, and the Mayan pyramids in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico are but a few notable examples. These and many other architectural wonders have survived the passing of time; they are timeless. It is somewhat paradoxical, however, that timelessness is a quality so often attached to buildings that are intrinsically attached to death.
In his The Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander discusses processes of making buildings that can come alive, and survive the passing of time. For Alexander, the timeless way of building is a “process which allows the life inside a person, or a family, or a town, to flourish, openly, in freedom, so vividly that it gives birth, of its own accord, to the natural order which is needed to sustain this life”. […]